Ladders are a universal tool for gaining access to otherwise unreachable places. However, ladders typically being configured as long, rigid structures make them inherently cumbersome to transport and store.
Many ladders exist that try to improve the convenience of transport and storage by telescoping, folding up, and in some cases disassembling. Articulated ladders that feature locking rotational joints are a common solution. Commonly, adjacent rails that comprise the folding sections of the ladder feature discs at each end with interlocking features. These features may be configured in many ways, including pins in holes and positive/negative locking elements that encircle the axis of the rotary locking joint. Additional parts of the mechanisms may be employed to hold the joints in their locked position once deployed.
Despite that many folding and locking mechanisms have been designed to suit ladders and other collapsible structures, several problems restrict their usability to ladders that (a) do not have a large number of folding sections, (b) are not very long, (c) cannot support a high load, or (d) cannot easily disassemble or be assembled modularly to increase the ladder's length. To create a ladder that can collapse into an exceptionally small package that includes many sections, is long enough to reach significant climbing heights such as 30 feet, carry a heavy dynamic load up to 350 lbs, and be reconfigurable such that it can be separated into a desirable number of smaller sub-sections.